China persecution: 30 officials raid house church, remove property without warrants

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Amid continuing raids on house churches, more than 30 officials conducted a warrantless raid on the Mt. Olive house church in China’s Chongqing municipality last Wednesday, Christian Post reports. The officials arrived at the house church with trucks in which they removed all property from the home.

According to rights group China Aid, the same group of officials from the District Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau had raided Mt. Olive during its worship service last Sunday. At that time the authorities told congregants to leave, and they sealed the church; they had no warrant or other legal documentation with them. Pastor Zhu Dong and several other leaders are understood to have been taken to the police station.

On Sunday, February 28, officials raided the Chongqing Living Fountain Church during a service and arrested two Christians, one of whom had been preaching. Authorities reportedly removed a computer belonging to the church and told congregants not to gather there again because the church is not registered and “there’s the potential risk of spreading the COVID-19 virus.” In January, police officers, education bureau officials, national security officers and urban management officers raided a house in which children from the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu were homeschooled.

China Aid has said it believes the recent crackdown on house churches, especially reformed churches, maybe a “gift” for the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, the Christian Post reports.

China ranks 17 on the Open Doors USA’s 2021 World Watch List of countries in which Christians are persecuted.

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